


Annoyance

by whatteam_voltron



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Anaphylaxis, Gen, because he's so focused on Zoe, food allergies, so anyway, specifically when Evan starts ignoring Jared more and more, this focuses on their friendship kinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 14:28:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14334462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatteam_voltron/pseuds/whatteam_voltron
Summary: Evan doesn't care about the rest of the world when he's talking with Zoe, the rest of the world is an interruption, an annoyance. But maybe the annoyance was asking a question that shouldn't be dismissed.





	Annoyance

**Author's Note:**

> I promise I'll be updating Satisfied soon, I just really liked the idea of a big dramatic event to represent the amount Evan was ignoring Jared in favor of Zoe and his own problems and just adding Intense Consequences makes it Intense.
> 
> Also I know nothing about anything medical this is all just from internet searching so I hope I got it right??????

When Zoe smiled, it was like standing in the sunshine on a summer day. And when she smiled at Evan, _because_ of Evan, it was all the more special. When she talked, all he wanted to do was listen to her voice. And, you know, stop sweating so much.

The Connor Project meeting was starting in a few minutes, and Evan and Zoe were the first to show up. She talked about how she would probably only be there for a few minutes because she had couldn't miss the entire band practice, and soon they were talking about music and-

"Goddamn, I am so _hungry_ right now!" Jared's voice came in the room, loud, like thunder interrupting an island paradise. His eyes fell on a tray of brownies and a stack of napkins in the middle of the table. One of the students made them as a thank you gift to the Connor Project. "Evan, can I eat one of these?"

Evan was sure Jared was out to spite him at this point, so he tried to ignore him and kept talking to Zoe.

"Evan!" Jared snapped his fingers. "Can I eat these?"

Evan rolled his eyes. He didn't even register what Jared was asking, only that it was noise, and there was one answer more likely to make him quiet. "Yes!" He flinched when he sounded a little too exasperated, Zoe would probably think he was being rude, she probably thinks he's an asshole or something. "So Zoe, when you-"

"Are you sure it-"

"Oh my God, Jared, it's fine!" Truth be told, Evan barely registered what Jared asked in the first place. He just wanted him to stop being so annoying.

There was a moment where everything froze, but then Alana got to the room. "Hey guys, sorry I'm the last one here, I had to talk to the principal about putting the Kickstarter on the morning announcements."

Jared sat down and stuffed a brownie in his mouth to distract from how Evan talked to him. He didn't know why he was getting so worked up over it, he knew Evan just wanted to have more time with Zoe, he knew Evan was never very enthusiastic to listen to him in the first place, so he shouldn't be so surprised. Fuck it, at least it's Spring. If a few tears come, he can blame it on allergies. Half the school has been sneezing and blowing their noses over the past week, so it wasn't exactly a hard sell.

Alana was going over the plans for the Kickstarter. "We need to really increase our social media presence for this to work. Evan, I think the more we post from Connor the better, as it helps them get to know who he was and keep his memory alive, and it gives them a connection to the cause. Do you have any other emails that will help us learn more about him, Evan?"

"I can find some more I'm willing to share, yeah. I'll forward them to you by tonight."

"And Jared, did you get the final estimate for how much money we actually need?"

He felt like there was a lump in his throat. "Yeah, around-" He coughed and cleared his throat. "Like 50,000 should do it." His voice was hoarse. Maybe the pollen really was finally starting to get to him. He got out a bottle of water and took sips, then ate the last bite of his brownie, more slowly than before. Suddenly he realized what was wrong. He spit out what he had in his mouth into the napkin he took. The conversation that was happening around him halted, and Jared looked up. "You're an asshole, Evan." He managed to wheeze out.

Evan's stomach dropped. His eyes flickered to the brownies.

_Oh._

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

It was in 7th grade.

"Evan! I gotta tell you something. So this weekend, my parents dragged me to some fancy party or whatever, and you should have seen the dessert table. I'm talking chocolate fountain, here, right? So anyway, uh, I had these cookies, and-" He started hesitating more, as if he didn't want to have to say this part of the sentence. "And then I- well I started coughing and my throat felt really weird and eventually I couldn't breathe but anyway it was this whole big thing and the point is we figured out I'm allergic to cashews, which sucks."

Evan's eyes widened as Jared told the story. "Are you- are you okay? That's so scary, that must have been awful! What about like- so you can't eat nuts now?"

Jared fought the urge to cackle at the word "nuts." "Calm down, it's just like cashews and pistachios I'm supposed to stay away from, I eat walnuts and almonds and shit all the time. But anyway-" he dug around in his backpack. "Since I have the organizational skills of a toddler and mine will get shoved under a bunch of stuff in my backpack within a month, and I mean my parents want me to have it in my pocket but I'd look like such an asshole, could you uh- carry one of these around?" He pulled out an EpiPen. "Because, you know, we eat lunch together, and we have a bunch of classes together. You're the only idiot here I'd trust to make sure I don't die, because could you imagine how pissed your mom would be? Besides, you're used to carrying around some extra adrenaline with your whole anxiety thing, right?" Evan didn't laugh, still staring at what Jared had handed him. "Anyway I can show you how you'd do it if you come over my house this week, they showed me how to use it but I'm probably not going to be the most reliable person if I'm also freaking out because I'm dying."

Evan cleared his throat. "Right- uh- sure. I can uh- I can come over if I get a ride back."

"No problemo."

And really, Evan took it as a sort of honor. He not only carried the EpiPen, but he made sure he had every aspect of the flavor of cashews and pistachios memorized so he could be Jared's taste-tester, and then cleaned the whole house so every trace of them was gone. Jared had resigned himself to not eating cookies that students brought in on special days, saying he didn't want to be known as the "weird kid always talking about his allergies." After a while, you would have thought Evan was the one with the allergy, as he was always raising his hand to ask, remarkable because he'd never have done it for himself. Most things students brought in didn't have nuts anyways, as it was a common allergy and the other kids weren't total assholes. The only time someone brought in pistachio cookies, Evan didn't touch them either.

Once he went over to Evan's house a few days after Heidi held a family get-together, and Evan had sorted all the desserts and breads left over into things Jared could eat and things he couldn't, and swore none of them touched each other. Jared may have acted like Evan was going a little too far, but secretly he was grateful the other boy put so much thought into things, even if he was pretty sure it was because Evan was probably petrified of the idea of someone depending on him to save their life and went the extra mile to avoid the situation.

 

As the years went on, it became less of a topic. No one brought baked goods in to school anymore, and the two boys drifted apart. Jared still saw him in school, and they still had the same lunch block every year. Jared still gave Evan an updated EpiPen each year, and that was the most discussion as there usually was, because Jared never had another incident.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Until now.

"You're an asshole, Evan." Jared's eyes had flashed with betrayal and hurt in the moment before he started coughing violently and pushing himself from his chair and onto the ground.

Evan froze for a moment before snapping out of it and grabbing the backpack under his chair. "Alana, C-call 9-1-1, Zoe, get the nurse!" He yelled as he unzipped the front pocket and grabbed the EpiPen, trying to ignore how he could hear Jared's coughing turn to desperate gasps before they became just the horrible near-silent sounds as Jared tried mimicking the actions of breathing only to have it do nothing at all. Evan was by his side in a second, and felt a pang of guilt to see him reaching for his own bag before Evan kneeled next to him, uncapping the EpiPen and pushing it down on Jared's thigh, holding it down for a few seconds before removing it and putting it back in the carrying tube. He then scrambled for Jared's bag and dug through the bottom of all the pockets until he finally found the other one. He sat back down and waited should Jared need a second dose.

It took a few moments for the world to become focused again. As he saw Jared go back from gasping to somewhat normal breathing, everything else came back. He could hear Alana talking on the phone- "He's breathing now, yes, he's laying on his side-"

He saw Jared start to shake a little, he was probably crying a bit too, but there were already so much sweat and tears on his face, not to mention how red it was, that you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Not that Evan would bring it up anyway.

The worst thing was that Evan had _asked._ He remembered the girl bringing them brownies. He remembered to ask what kind of nuts were in it. Walnuts and cashews. He knew he shouldn't have even set them on the table like that, but he actually expected Jared to skip this meeting anyway and he wanted it to look nice. For Zoe. He scrunched his eyes closed in shame as he realized that Jared had _asked_ him if he could eat them and Evan had told him to go for it just to blow him off easier. To talk to Zoe.

He wasn't a very good friend.

"Jared, I'm so sor-"

"Whatever."

And Evan would have preferred anger to the just sort-of exhausted, resigned tone, as if Jared knew this was coming. Before Evan could say anything else, the nurse came running in, and the paramedics a few minutes later.

Jared had started complaining when the paramedics got there. "Come on guys, this is a little dramatic. I'm good-"

"You may feel okay now, but the EpiPen doesn't last long. You'd start experiencing the symptoms again shortly." The nurse explained as she backed up to make room.

"I know that, I wouldn't exactly have one with me if this was my first rodeo, but I'm trying to tell these assholes that they could literally have just driven me to the hospital." Jared huffed.

The next minute was a blur, a lot of people were talking, Evan handed someone the used EpiPen so they would know how much was used, and he followed as they took Jared out of the building. Jared started coughing again as they got him into the ambulance. He didn't remember who he asked if he could come, but he was eventually in the vehicle with Jared, texting Alana and Zoe about what was happening.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys my tumblr is whatteam-voltron if you need to find me!!! Hope you enjoyed this story XD!!!


End file.
